Fig. 47. Highly cultivated sand in Kent. Gooseberries are growing in the foreground, vegetables behind, and hops in background
A sandy soil is in so many ways the opposite of a clay soil that we shall expect to find corresponding differences in the look of the country. A sandy soil does not hold water: it may get water up from the subsoil to supply the plant (see p. 66), or, if it happens to lie in a basin of clay, it may even be very wet: otherwise it is likely to be too dry for ordinary plants. We may therefore look out for two sorts of sand country, the one cultivated because there is enough water for the crops, and the other not cultivated because the water is lacking. These can readily be found.
We will study the cultivated sands first. As sand is not good plant food (p. 43) these soils want a lot of manure, and so are not good for ordinary farmers. But they are very easy to cultivate—for which reason they are called light soils—and can be dug at any time; seeds can be sown early, and early crops can be got. Consequently these soils are very useful for men doing special work like fattening winter and spring sheep, or producing special crops like fruit or potatoes, and for market gardeners who grow all sorts of vegetables, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, peas, and so on. Fig. 47 is a view of a highly cultivated sandy region in Kent showing gooseberries in the foreground, vegetables behind, and a hop garden behind that again.
